A response to a self-published chapbook left by the poet's late aunt of her family's bee-keeping days, The Annotated Bee& Me excerpts family conversations, voice-mail messages, family photos and even personal greetings in a conversation-collage with the past: "I'm Tim Bowling. / I'm five foot nine. I write poetry / and I don't keep bees... . Hello. / Who are you?"

Bowling pays homage to the mothers, the queen bees, the generation and regeneration of that most "antiquarian human" hope: "Daily we spread it on our toast."

This is a personal collection from Bowling, who rises with charm to the tender, joyful placing of himself within the permanence and loss of a family history: "Who do I console if not my life?"

-- -- --

On the other side of the lyric, but equally beguiling, is The Irrationalist (Anansi, 91 pages, $23), a wry second collection from award-winning Canadian expatriate Suzanne Buffam, who teaches creative writing at the University of Chicago.

Buffam negotiates what it means to be human through the playful juggling of intellect (with debts to Aristotle, William James and Plato) and its irrational, humorously self-indulgent counterpart: "So lead me O Destiny whither is ordained by your decree, / Just please don't force me to vacuum the stairs."

Sarcastic and hopeful, cerebral and evocative, Buffam exposes real-world facts in the face of her highly-imaginative interiors.

In one of the more narrative poems, Trying, she considers the human soul alongside conception techniques, fate alongside basal body temperatures: "If procreation were a matter to be decided purely on the basis of rational thought, would the human race still exist?"

-- -- --

Montreal's Suzanne Hancock strikes an exquisite imagistic tolling in her second collection,Cast from Bells (McGill-Queen's University Press, 68 pages, $17).

Guiding with the image of bells cut from their towers during the making of Second World War munitions, Hancock considers formations past and present as they correspond to relationships, both animal and human.

Composed as a long poem, the sequence swings back and forth between war and divorce, bells and bullets, a hopeful heart and "a body that clangs with absence."

In wide, chiming, vivid strokes, Hancock casts beautifully the struggles of aloneness in a refined lyrical light: "Something bangs against the walls of the heart and silently starts to sing."

From tornadoes and fallen pigeons to shoplifting and parenthood, Cayer's poems are built on tendons of faith and exasperation at their storm-cell nexus: "Survival is about getting close enough to what you need."

In the opening poem, Day Job with Dead Pigeon: A Series of Sticky Notes, Cayer reaches out to the "hand-shaped mess" of a dead pigeon in a meditation on mortality that exposes the grit, decomposition and a "belly full of white bread / tasting of hands."

These are poems that touch down with tender inquisition, making peace in the aftermath of life's many storms. From childbirth, failed relationships and abandoned dwellings, Attenuations of Force shows us how "that which we choose to celebrate, makes us."

Winnipegger Jennifer Still's second collection of poetry, Girlwood, will appear in 2011 from Brick Books.

Your support has enabled us to provide free access to stories about COVID-19 because we believe everyone deserves trusted and critical information during the pandemic.

Our readership has contributed additional funding to give Free Press online subscriptions to those that can’t afford one in these extraordinary times — giving new readers the opportunity to see beyond the headlines and connect with other stories about their community.

To those who have made donations, thank you.

To those able to give and share our journalism with others, please Pay it Forward.

The Free Press has shared COVID-19 stories free of charge because we believe everyone deserves access to trusted and critical information during the pandemic.

While we stand by this decision, it has undoubtedly affected our bottom line.

After nearly 150 years of reporting on our city, we don’t want to stop any time soon. With your support, we’ll be able to forge ahead with our journalistic mission.

If you believe in an independent, transparent, and democratic press, please consider subscribing today.

We understand that some readers cannot afford a subscription during these difficult times and invite them to apply for a free digital subscription through our Pay it Forward program.

The Free Press would like to thank our readers for their patience while comments were not available on our site. We're continuing to work with our commenting software provider on issues with the platform. In the meantime, if you're not able to see comments after logging in to our site, please try refreshing the page.

You can comment on most stories on The Winnipeg Free Press website. You can also agree or disagree with other comments.
All you need to do is be a Winnipeg Free Press print or digital subscriber to join the conversation and give your feedback.

Have Your Say

Have Your Say

Comments are open to The Winnipeg Free Press print or digital subscribers only. why?